Advent

Dec 03 2024

Scripture Study for

The reading from Isaiah focuses on future, universal recognition of the sovereignty of the God of Israel. God’s mountain refers to the site of the temple, yet the image evokes more than location. Not only God’s dwelling place, but also as the place from which the divine King exercises dominion through law-giving and judgment, the mountain represents God’s sovereign rule. In time, the kingship of God will extend beyond Israel as other nations receive both instructions previously reserved for Israel and the benefit of God’s just judgment. Enlightened by God’s instruction and obedient to God’s judgment of conflicts, the nations will have no need to resort to war.

Having exhorted the Roman Christians not to conform themselves to the present age, but to allow their minds to be transformed (Romans 12:2), Paul has insisted they must love one another, for “love is the fulfillment of the law” (13:10). Paul now places his plea within the context of God’s plan: moral transformation is both necessary and urgent, for the dawn of salvation has begun. To remain in former ways is to be caught “asleep” as the sun rises. Transformation comes about by putting on the “armor of light,” Christ himself (“put on the Lord Jesus Christ”), who protects against the seductions of the flesh, physical or social. Thus, it is Christ who brings about in the believer this saving transformation.

Jesus’ speech picks up this same idea of not being caught off guard when he returns. Just as the flood brought with it a sudden change from life as usual to judgment, so it will be when the Son of Man comes back. Now is the time to make whatever changes need to be made in one’s life. As in the Pauline passage, there is a union of eschatology and ethics—one must live in a way that is fitting for the reign of God. There will come a time when it will be “too late,” when the time of preparation will have passed.

Dec 03 2024

Living on the Edge—of Time

When you stand at the lip of the Grand Canyon, you can see into a vast distance. You know that you are at the edge of something. Today, we are on the edge of something, too—the edge of time. That is a little harder to see. A pregnant mother breathes with the contractions of her womb; she is on the edge of the moment of birth. The family of a dying man waits by his hospital bed, attentive to his breathing, on the brink of the time of his death. Time has edges. Time has moments when something is about to shift.

At the time of First Isaiah, bloodthirsty Assyria hovered over Israel. The prophet sensed that time was about to change. Now we know that it was the total destruction of Israel’s northern kingdom and the loss of the ten northern tribes. Only Isaiah felt it coming. His people didn’t know. They were on an edge when history was about to shift.

Jesus alerts us to this edginess: we do not know our own time or hour. We do not know the time or the hour for our loved ones. Each moment of the present is a shifting point between past and future. We live on the edge of time.

Today, we are on the edge of Advent. Advent is the liturgical time that alerts us: Stay awake! Be ready! We know that Christmas is coming. We do not know when Jesus will come again in glory. With Isaiah, we pray that swords will be turned into plowshares. Are we on the edge of a shift in history? We do not know. But with God’s help, we hold onto this quiet Advent hope: Our God is timeless, but is also the Lord of time. Jesus is here, now and always.

Consider/Discuss

Think of your own moments of transition and change, the edginess of time in your own life. How has God been with you in those moments?
As we look toward the unfolding of Advent, how can we use this season of preparation purposefully to grow spiritually stronger for the next “something” that is coming our way?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, as we begin our Advent preparation, we wait for you. We listen for you in the stillness. We wait for you as in the quiet darkness before the dawn. We do not know what is ahead, but in this moment, breathe within us and strengthen us. Abide with us. Cleanse our hearts and let us be ready to receive you, no matter what may swirl around us. Come, Lord Jesus! Come and be born in our hearts.

Dec 03 2024

Something’s Coming

The musical West Side Story was revived in New York City recently. The first song is “Something’s Coming.” Tony, a young man, senses something wonderful approaching but he does not know what. That very night he will meet Maria and fall in love. On the cusp of this new world opening up before him, he sings about his heightened sense of anticipation that something miraculous is about to happen, and it’s just out of his reach.

It is that kind of excitement that today’s readings are meant to evoke in us. There is something wonderful coming in our future—something no eye has seen or ear heard, something that God has ready for those who love God. But have we stopped looking forward to “something coming”? Have we given up on the hope that something new is coming, that a miracle is due, and at any moment, possible?

Jesus calls to us across the centuries in Matthew’s Gospel, at a moment when he is about to enter Jerusalem to die. He calls on us to live in hope that at any moment God’s rule can be experienced, that the peace that only God can give will touch our lives and suddenly settle on our hearts and minds.

How can we prepare for this sudden coming of God’s presence? Try to live consciously aware of what we proclaim every week in the liturgy: Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.

Consider/Discuss

When was the last time you looked forward to something in a way that made you feel fully alive, alert, and awake?
Do you believe that the day is coming when God will reign, bringing all nations to live in peace and harmony?

Responding to the Word

We pray every week: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Pray it daily as if for the first time. Ask God to allow the kingdom to come to your family, to your workplace, in your neighborhood, among the people of your city, country, and world.

Nov 08 2024

God of Promise

In Thornton Wilder’s play The Skin of our Teeth, Mrs. Antrobus tells her husband, George, that she didn’t marry him because he was perfect, that she didn’t even marry him because she loved him; she married him because he gave her a promise. And she gave one to him. And over the years, as their children were growing up, that mutual promise protected all of them, moving them into the future together.

A promise can open up into an unexpected future, marked by new life. God’s promises spoken in today’s first reading offered hope to a people who had little reason to hope. The hope of a restored Jerusalem, of a descendent of David who would do what is right and just—such promises began to be fulfilled in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

With Jesus a new age began that promised to bring the old order of chaos and destruction to an end. With his birth a new power entered the world, making it possible to live in love, and allowing men and women to “increase and abound in love for each other and for all,” as Paul writes to the Thessalonians. Total fulfillment of God’s promises remains in the future.

But beginnings offer hope. A new church year calls on us to live as a people of hope in what God can do in our own day. Advent invites us to renew our relationship with the promises of God made visible in the person of Jesus Christ.

Consider/Discuss

Do you think of God as a promise keeper?
Do you see Jesus as beginning the fulfillment of God’s promises?
What hopes do you have for this new year of grace?

Responding to the Word

Lord, awaken us to your love and grant us your salvation, so we might bring new life to our world by what we say and do. Bless this new year of grace, and may our call to holiness alert the world to your transforming power.

Nov 08 2024

Scriptural Study for First Sunday of Advent

Jeremiah’s words announce a future wherein God’s promise of restoration will be fulfilled. A shoot, a sign of new life springing from previous life, will be raised up for the Davidic house. Jerusalem, the city whose name means “foundation of peace,” is here called “The Lord our justice.” Thus, the foundation of this peace is justice, and the basis of the justice is the quality of commitment to the Lord. This oracle opens with an announcement that God will deliver the people to safety, and it concludes with the people rooting their salvation in the righteousness of God.

Paul expresses his desire for the spiritual growth of the Thessalonians. His exhortation contains a tone of urgency, encouraging the believers to continue to live righteous lives. He does not ask that their love increase, but that their capacity for growth be expanded so that they can fill it with love. This love should be both communal (for one another) and universal (for all). It breaks all ethnocentric bounds and, like the love that Paul himself possesses, it resembles the inclusive love of God. Paul implies that the coming time of fulfillment should be an incentive to righteous living.

Jesus speaks of cosmic disturbances and the distress on earth that these disturbances will cause. His cosmic turmoil calls to mind the primordial chaos out of which God brought order (see Genesis 1:1–10), and the destruction at the time of Noah out of which God brought order anew (see Genesis 7:12; 9:9–11). In the case described in this passage, the disturbances are probably less predictions of actual historical events than they are metaphorical images portraying the end of one age and the birth of another. For those who faithfully await the revelation of God, this will not be a time of punishment, but of fulfillment. Since the exact time of the revelation is unknown, the fundamental exhortation is: Beware! Take heed! Be alert! Don’t be caught by surprise!